(IEEE SPEC 2021)

1 6th IEEE Southern Power Electronics Conference (IEEE SPEC 2021) 6-9 December 2021 Kigali, Rwanda 6th IEEE SPEC ORGANISING COMMITTEE ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Prof. Sarath Tennakoon (General Chair) Prof. Udaya K Madawala (General Co-Chair) Prof. Tim Brown (Finance Chair) Prof. Mahinda Vilathgamuwa (Technical Program Chair) Prof. Kouzou Abdellah (Virtual Platform Chair) Dr. Farzad Farajizadeh (Publicity Chair) Dr. Shantha Gamini (Tutorial Chair) Dr. Craig Baguley (Scholarships Chair) Prof. Jun Liang (IEEE UKRI PELS Liaison) Dr. Charles Kabiri (University of Rwanda Liaison) Dr. Jean D Hakizimana Dr. Mulugeta Gebrehwiot Dr. Marie Chantal Cyulinyana Dr. Edwin Mugume Ms. Samantha Niyoyita Prof. GHanim Putrus Prof. Martin Saint Mr. Faith Bagire Ms. Sonia Sumwari (Secretariat) Mr. Chamin De Lanerole (Web Master) STUDENT VOLUNTEERS Mr. Hamidreza Rahnamaee Miss. Meilin Hu Miss. Gayani De Soysa Mr. Patrick Nzambavita Mr.

2 Abderrahman Bensalem Mr. Bingkun Song Mr. Zakaria Belboul Mr. Zhongzheng Lin Mr. Habimana Jean Damascene Mr. Chouiha Youcef This page is left blank intentionally WELCOME Dear All As General Chairman and on behalf of the organizing committee, I warmly welcome you to attend the 6th IEEE Southern Power Electronics Conference (SPEC 2021) which was to be held in hybrid form with virtual and in-person attendees at Kigali Marriott Hotel, Kigali, Rwanda, from 6-9 December 2021. However due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic the conference will now be held in fully virtual form. SPEC was founded and sponsored by the Power Electronics Society (PELs) of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (IEEE), with the view to promote Power Electronics and its applications in the Southern Hemisphere, where resources and opportunities to network, share ideas and establish collaborations among members are somewhat limited.

3 SPEC has never been held in Africa and, hence, it is high time that the conference is held in an African country. Rwanda is arguably the safest country in and Kigali the cleanest city in Africa and the weather is pleasantly warm throughout the year. SPEC 2021 in Rwanda is, therefore, an ideal opportunity for students, researchers, engineers and academics from all over the world to bring the latest technological advances and applications in Power Electronics to the Southern Hemisphere, and to the African continent to promote the discipline. World-renowned scholars will deliver keynote and plenary speeches as well as conduct tutorials on topics of global interest. A wide range of technical sessions is also included in the conference program for participants to make contributions towards advances within the field of power electronics. Rwanda is a country known for its breath-taking scenery and is often referred to as the land of a thousand hills.

4 View the virtual tour of Rwanda to appreciate the beauty of this country. The organizing committee will ensure that your participation in SPEC 2021 is productive and your visit to Kigali is a memorable experience. I look forward to welcoming you at SPEC 2021. Yours sincerely Sarath B Tennakoon General Chair IEEE SPEC 2021 Sponsors KEYNOTE SPEAKER Prof. David Dorrell University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa Tuesday 7th December | am (GMT + 2) Electric Vehicle Technology Advances Electric and hybrid vehicles have developed greatly in recent years with most major manufacturers offering electric versions of vehicles across their range. They are torque and power dense and often rely on fluid cooling to deliver high transient performance during acceleration and regenerative braking. Most are brushless permanent magnet synchronous machines though other machines, such as the induction machine, are used. This presentation will review the current state-of-the-art for vehicle drive machines and highlight the key characteristics that are required.

5 With their development comes new analysis techniques which will also be addressed. Future developments will be discussed. Particularly two-wheeled scooters and motorcycles. These are now common in countries such as China and may offer a solution to the developing world as a form of cheap and economical transport. In addition, a lot of Africa uses taxis (which are 16-seater minibuses) and there are plans to develop these for the continent. This talk will present a short historical perspective of how the HVDC and FACTS industry got to its present position, a description of the present state of the art and predictions of how the grid will evolve in the coming decades. Biography David Dorrell obtained a PhD degree from The University of Cambridge in 1993. This was on induction motor analysis. He is currently a distinguished professor with The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He has held positions with The Robert Gordon University, UK, The University of Reading, UK, The University of Glasgow, UK, and University of Technology Sydney, Australia.

6 He was Professor of Electrical Machines with The University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa (2015-2020) and Director of the EPPEI Specialization Centre in HVDC and FACTS at UKZN. His research interests cover electrical machines, renewable energy and power systems. He has worked in industry and carried out consultancies. He has published extensively on a range of topics with a wide network of international collaborators. He has over 11000 citations on Google Scholar. He is Chartered Engineer in the UK and Fellow of the IET. He was elevated to Fellow of the IEEE in 2019. KEYNOTE SPEAKER Prof. Kaushik Rajashekara University of Houston, Texas, US Wednesday 8th December | 4:00 pm 5:00 pm (GMT + 2) Current Trends and Future Strategies for Air Transportation The aerospace industry is facing challenges similar to the automotive industry in terms of improving fuel economy and reducing the emissions and cost. The air transportation accounts for about of global CO2 emissions.

7 In order to reduce the emissions from the aircraft, the industry has seen an increasing research and technology advancements in more electric aircraft (MEA), electric, and hybrid electric aircrafts. In addition, in order to reduce the traffic congestion and improve the urban air quality, a number of companies are developing short range electrical vertical take-off and landing vehicles (eVTOL) and flying cars, which can be used as air taxis or for personal transportation. In MEA, the intent is to move as many aircraft loads as possible to electrical power, resulting in simpler aircraft systems leading to the potential for lower fuel consumption, reduced emissions, reduced maintenance, and possibly lower costs. The electric aircraft and hybrid electric aircrafts will further reduce the emissions, improve the efficiency, and provides better controllability for the aircrafts. The advancement of flying cars and eVTOL vehicles is reshaping the future of transportation.

8 In this presentation, the current trends and future strategies in aircraft propulsion to reduce the emissions and a brief overview of how the power electronics technology is enabling to develop the next generation of air transportation will be presented. Biography Dr. Kaushik Rajashekara received his BE, ME, and PhD from Indian Institute of Science. He joined Delphi division of General Motors Corporation in Indianapolis, IN, USA as a staff project engineer in 1989. In Delphi and General Motors, he held various lead technical and managerial positions, and was a Technical Fellow and the Chief Scientist for developing electric machines, controllers, and power electronics systems for electric, hybrid, and fuel cell vehicle systems. In 2006, he joined Rolls-Royce Corporation as a Chief Technologist for More Electric Architectures and power conversion/control technologies for Electric, More Electric, and Hybrid Electric Aircrafts. In August 2012, he joined as a Distinguished Professor of Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas.

9 Since September 2016, he is a Distinguished Professor of Engineering in University of Houston. Prof. Rajashekara was elected as a Member of the US National Academy of Engineering in 2012 for contributions to electric power conversion systems in transportation. He is a recipient of 2021 IEEE Medal on Environmental and Safety Technologies, and 2013 Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Indian Institute of Science. He has published more than 250 papers in international journals and conferences, has 35 and 15 foreign patents; and has written one book, and contributed individual chapters to 8 books. His research interests are in the areas of power/energy conversion, Transportation Electrification, Renewable Energy, and Subsea Electrification. KEYNOTE SPEAKER Mr. Colin Davidson GE grid Solutions, Stafford, UK Thursday 9th December | pm (GMT + 2) FACTS and DC transmission: History, State of the Art and Future Developments From the very earliest days of electrical power transmission, in the 1880s, the advantages of DC (as promoted by Thomas Edison) were already clear but despite this, the Battle of the Currents was won by Westinghouse and Tesla s AC solution, mainly because two 19th century inventions, the transformer and the circuit-breaker, were much easier to realise using AC than DC.

10 Nevertheless, the use of DC in certain, niche point-to-point transmission applications never completely went away, with the first electromechanical conversion systems installed in the 1890s and electronic AC/DC conversion starting to appear in the 1930s. Today, HVDC is widely used for point-to-point power transmission applications where very high powers need to be transmitted for long distances, and the first commercial applications of meshed HVDC grids and medium-voltage DC (MVDC) for reinforcement of distribution grids, are starting to appear. With the drive for ever-increasing levels of renewable energy generation, along with drastic changes in consumption patterns as transportation and domestic heating are electrified, much greater use of DC for both transmission and distribution are inevitable. At the same time, limitations of traditional AC power systems led to the introduction of Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS), a set of technologies that are complementary to those used in DC transmission systems.